The Curious Case of the Rocket Facilities
by TehFishcake
Summary: An incident at one of Team Rocket's research facilities leads to a loss of communication and important research data. As a result of this, Butch and Cassidy are sent in order to figure out what happened and recover the data. However they soon find more than they expected, leading to something much different than a simple mission.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1-The Incident

The outskirts of Saffron City; Team Rocket Research Facility.

A pair of professional looking people walked down a long, pristine white hallway, their boots clicking with every step. Both were dressed in standard researcher uniforms; white lab coats, with a red R stitched on the pocket, black undershirt, black trousers and thick soled boots. The male, with dull, grey hair and blue eyes, looked disinterested as the female, who had green eyes and blonde hair, struggled to start a conversation.

"So…um…you," the woman started after a few more steps, "what d'you think we're doing today?"

"I don't know. Same thing we do every day. Monitor tests, get the scientist's coffee and lunch, same old, same old," the man replied, speeding up slightly as the duo neared the end of the hallway. "And call me Smokey," he said, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Smokey?" the woman said questioningly, one eyebrow raised, as they reached a large security door at the end of the hallway. "Well, call me Clara then."

The duo paused next to a large security door. "Anyway, nah, I got a feeling that something's gonna happen today. Something…just something. I mean why else would we be given these neat new clothes?" the woman questioned as she swiped her security clearance card. The lock flashed for a couple of seconds, before turning green, and opening the door.

"Yeah…something'll happen today. The _same_ thing which happens every day," Smokey commented, raising his voice so it would be heard through the door. He shook his head and swiped his card to gain access to the facility. "Honestly, that's all we junior scientists ever do."

* * *

When Smokey and Clara had entered the facility's foyer, they paused to recover after the long trek down the hallway. The room they had entered was just as clinically white as the hallway outside, there were no windows in the room, leaving only a harshly bright light to illuminate the room. Many doors were around which lead to a variety of different areas. A map of all the rooms was posted on the wall to the right of the door, and a crowd of scientists had gathered on the left, talking over their findings and any other topics which came to mind.

"Ah, there you two are, I was getting worried about you," a voice announced. Suddenly a rotund, balding, red-cheeked, white-haired old man broke off from the crowd and came rushing towards them, grinning and carrying large bundles of paper in his arms.

"Hello, Doctor Daruma," Clara said, while her male counterpart waved slightly. "So, what are we doing today, doc?" the woman continued, ignoring Smokey's lame attempt of a greeting. The doctor's smile grew even wider at this question.

"Oh, it's something special, Sunshine; just you wait and see, just you wait and _see_!" Daruma replied, bouncing up and down on his heels in poorly concealed glee. He gave the papers to a passing intern, and gestured at the duo to follow him into another section of the facility, which was labelled as 'Restricted'.

"See, told you something different would happen today," Clara whispered to Smokey, a slight smirk on her face. The grey-haired man just sighed, shook his head and followed Daruma to the restricted area.

After Daruma entered a long series of codes into a keypad, the group entered a room with what looked like a sprinkler system sticking out of the walls. "What is that?" Clara asked, approaching the room cautiously.

Daruma walked through without a moment's hesitation, not even flinching at the sudden hissing noise and large clouds of smoke coming from the walls. "Nothing to be scared of," he said, once the hissing had stopped, "it's just an air shower, it gets rid of outside contamination. Something we don't want where we're going."

"Oh," Clara said, feeling rather silly and following Daruma's lead, although the blonde flinched at the sudden, sharp hiss as air suddenly battered her from all angles. Smokey smiled at her actions and entered the room as Clara left. As the group came together again they reached a set of stairs, which led to a room with no locks. Printed on the door was 'LABORATORY 1: BOTAINCAL RESEARCH FACILITY'. Opposite the staircase was an elevator.

"Okay, now it's down to the fifth floor and to the left when we reach the bottom," Daruma said, as they all piled into the elevator together.

"Thank Arceus someone built this elevator," Smokey commented.

* * *

"Well we're here!" Daruma exclaimed, spreading his arms wide and grinning once again, as they approached a door. The door seemed rather cold and imposing; it was composed of dark, dull grey metal. Printed on the door in bold red was "LABORATORY 16; ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK".

"Uh…why does the door say that?" Clara paused and studied the lab through the small window on the door.

"It's just a joke, someone thought it'd be funny," Daruma said, closing his eyes and shaking his head gently in amusement. "Shall we progress now, or do you have any more questions?" Daruma's tone had suddenly become short and clipped.

"No, no let's go," Clara replied, a nervous tinge was in the tone of her voice, Smokey nodded in affirmation. Daruma, who seemed more relaxed now, opened the door and held it open so all three of them could enter the lab.

Inside the lab, it felt very cramped and gloomy; next to the door were three dull silver operating tables, two of which were covered in a dark unidentifiable substance. Two of the walls were lined with strange glass tubes; there were twelve tubes on each side and _something_ was floating in a greenish fluid in each tube. Wires ran from the bottom of the tubes over to the back wall. Smokey could barely make out a group of six scientists huddled together near the point where all the wires connected to a large computer terminal. "Hello, my fellow researchers!" Daruma shouted suddenly, causing the scientists to look up briefly, "how are the subjects faring today?"

"Better than yesterday," one scientist replied, before turning back to the screen. Daruma's excitement had returned again, a grin forming on his face again.

"Ahem," Smokey cleared his throat to get Daruma's attention, "would you mind explaining what's going on, and why we're down here?" Still grinning, Daruma turned around and pointed at the glass tube closest to his right. It was then that Smokey realised the _thing_ in the tube was vaguely humanoid and moving.

"_That's_ what we're doing down here, we're making the next step in _evolution_!" Daruma exclaimed, the grin on his face seemed more deranged and demented after every word. "Have you ever read the ancient Pokémon myths? You know those myths were the Pokémon are half one creature and half another creature?"

"Yeah," Clara answered, "the myth of the chimera, right?

"That's the one; well what you're looking at is the _actualisation of that myth,_" Daruma finished, panting for breath slightly. "Half-human, half-Pokémon." Smokey and Clara's expressions had slowly morphed from excitement to curiosity tinged with horror. "As for what you're doing here, well you got promoted to day duty for observing these…hmm, what did we call this group of experiments?" The head scientist stood up and walked towards the door, the others followed closely behind.

"We didn't name them; no point getting sentimental after all," the head scientist's dreary voice seemed to echo briefly as he left the room, the door clicked shut after the last member of the group had left. Daruma huffed at the door when the scientists had left.

"You know what we _will_ call them something, but what?" Daruma questioned his earlier enthusiasm dying down after the rebuttal from the scientist.

"I know, we could call them the Hybrids," Smokey said, looking at one of the holding tubes closely.

"…well, it'll do for now," Daruma replied, and then walked over to the vacant computer terminal to check the figures on the screen. "Hmm, that's odd. That's not right,"Daruma said, his brow furrowing slightly. Suddenly a high pitched, monotone beep echoed around the room, causing everyone to flinch.

"What's not right," Clara asked, walking over to the computer.

"The vitals for this one just dropped to zero," Daruma replied, pointing at a point on the screen for the blonde to see.

"Well I'm sorry to break it to you, but I think it just died," Clara commented.

"But it was the strongest one of the lot, the vitals didn't even flicker once, and now it's dead?"

"Well, these things just happen sometimes."

"But-"

"Which one died?" Smokey interrupted, as he inspected each tube carefully. In his opinion they all looked dead.

"Number twenty, the one left of the one you're standing next to." Smokey approached the glass, knocked a few times, and then stepped back to get a better look at the recently deceased chimera. It was long, humanoid and suspended by a series of thick cables stuck in its arms. It had thick arms, three fingers and a thumb on each hand, three toes on each foot and it had a large ruff of fur covering its neck. The oddest part of the chimera was its head; a pair of pointed ears stuck straight up either side of its head, its forehead was domed, and its nose stuck a good inch out from the rest of its face.

"Pretty ugly…alright so what do we do now?" asked Smokey after a few moments.

"We take it out of the containment unit and prepare it for removal or extra experiments," Daruma said hollowly, "still can't believe it's dead." He lowered his head in a show of respect, before typing a command into the computer. Suddenly the fluid drained into the bottom of the tube, and the glass panel slid upwards leaving the chimera dangling by the cables it was attached to.

"Take those cables out of its arms and lay it on that table there," Daruma said, gesturing vaguely to the area nearest to the door. Smokey struggled briefly under the chimera's weight, but he half-carried, half-dragged the chimera to the clean operating table, and let it drop down with a wet splat. "Alright, back to work." Daruma clapped his hands and focused on the screen again. "Clara, send a report to Namba, there should be a computer in the room next door," Daruma ordered, "Smokey, look at the remaining nineteen experiments, and tell me if you see them doing something odd".

As everyone preformed their specific duties, no one looked back at the operating tables, no one noticed the slight twitch of a hand, and no one noticed the parting of lips, revealing a pair of eerily sharp, white teeth.

* * *

"Lunchtime everyone," Daruma announced, causing Clara and Smokey to look up from their activities. Daruma then stood up and walked towards the entrance of Laboratory 16.

"What are we schoolchildren," Smokey whispered to Clara, who giggled quietly, before getting up and following Daruma towards the exit of the lab, but the young man paused when he reached the door. "Hey Daruma, you sure it's okay to leave the lab alone like this?" Smokey asked.

"Sure, we do it all the time," Daruma replied dismissively, "we'll be back in fifteen minutes." The old scientist pressed the elevator button and waited.

"But what if something happens while we're gone?" Smokey queried

"Well they can't go anywhere, if something happens," Clara said. Both men turned slowly and looked at the blonde. "What? It's true," she commented, and they all entered the elevator together. An awkward silence had descended on the group, as the elevator hummed and rose up to the top floor.

One of the interns came running towards the group as they left the restricted area, waving a piece of paper at them. "Urgent message for a Miss Clara," she said, barely coming to a halt before colliding with the group. Clara accepted the note with a confused look on her face; the confusion slowly changed to disappointment. "Sorry guys, but I got summoned to give the boss himself a report when he gets back from Unova." The blonde seemed unnerved by the news.

"Wait, why do you have to give the report? I thought only head scientists gave the boss reports," Smokey wondered aloud, turning slightly towards Daruma for an answer. The white-haired man shrugged and waved goodbye to the blonde woman as she headed towards the exit of the research facility.

The two men continued on towards the cafeteria after Clara had left the building. When they reached the room, which was still as sterile and windowless as all the other rooms, Daruma joined a group of scientists and began an animated conversation with them about the developments of the day. Smokey grabbed some food, went off to a small table and started a conversation with an intern who was sitting there.

* * *

After about ten minutes, the power suddenly cut in the facility, submerging the entire room into pitch black. A chorus of worried murmurs rose in the room before the backup lights activated, lighting the room in a dull yellow glow.

Smokey had been going back to the labs when the power cut occurred. He then turned around and started to go back to the foyer. As he turned around, he noticed the floor seemed to be vibrating gently, and a distant thumping sound could be heard.

Suddenly the emergency warning signs lit up and all the doors had automatically unlocked themselves. The floor was definitely vibrating now and a group of scientists were running towards him and away from the labs. Following their lead, Smokey ran towards the foyer. In the lowlight, he swore that one of the scientists was covered in blood, but it could have been his imagination.

Eventually they had reached the foyer, where everyone paused to catch their breath. "So what's everyone running away from?" asked Smokey, noticing there were only three scientists, two men and a woman, and they were all visibly shaking. He also noticed the thumping noise he had heard earlier had returned, only louder this time, so it resembled a charging herd of Rhyhorn. A slight whispering hiss was now echoing in the hallway between the labs and the foyer. As one of the scientists opened his mouth to speak, a message came out over the intercom:

"Warning, warning; all biological containment units have failed in all laboratories. All personnel must evacuate the facility immediately. Decontamination initiated; thirty minutes until extreme cleansing commences. Warning, warning; all biological contain-"the voice suddenly spluttered out in a burst of static. The whispering had increased to a cacophony of screaming howls which rattled the hallways and his ears, as the stampede of heavy, thunderous footsteps grew louder and closer. Smokey's eyes widened, and his heart rate increased.

"Oh my Mew! What the _hell's_ going on?" his head whipped around looking at anyone in the room who could provide an answer, a manic note to his voice, a frantic panic rising in his chest. _'Why is it so hard to breathe suddenly,'_ he wondered.

"Th-there's been a power cut, s-so we had t-to go and s-see if it affected a-anyone else, b-but then, oh Arceus, something st-started chasing us, I-I think it's stopped but we don't know." The scientist barely got his story out before he started to shake again, this time curling up and muttering the final rights to himself. It was then that Smokey confirmed the scientist was covered in blood and, judging by the shell-shocked look on his colleague's faces, figured that it was _not_ his own blood. The howling noises were louder than ever, and they had the screams of humans mixed in with them. The footsteps were closer and Smokey could see the flicker of dark shadows in the hallway

Lowering and softening his voice, Smokey asked, "What's chasing you?" while trying to move the other scientists towards the hallway between the foyer and the exit of the facility.

"I don't know, I don't kno-ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGH." A large, multi-limbed creature burst through the ceiling, landed on the scientist, and snapped the bones in his right leg with its massive jaws. The creature had three pairs of arm-like appendages growing out of each side of its body, each tipped with at least two claw-like fingers, and another two arms had sprouted from its back. Its eyes were dark and beady, but held a certain amount of intelligence as it surveyed its downed prey. A large off-white spike stuck out from the middle of its forehead, and the saliva dripping from its mouth and onto the scientist's leg was a shade of dark purple.

"H-holy shit, what the fuck, what the…" he scrabbled along the floor, picked himself up and broke into a run. 'Not far...freedom...so…close…gotta…keep…moving.' He panted, bile raising as the scientist's dying screams echoed and faded, only to be replaced by a series of cracking bones permeated by a wet, meaty splatter as the creature did something to the scientist's corpse. The remaining two scientists had frozen, and seemed unable to move from their current position. Smokey ignored them, his self-preservation instincts taking over as he sprinted towards the exit.

He reached the final door, slammed his security clearance card against the door's lock and pushed hard against it, again and again, before coming to a sudden realisation. "Oh fucking hell, it's sealed, they sealed the door," he screamed, before noticing he had not pulled the door. By this point an entire horde of the creatures had entered the hallway. The largest one, a canine-like humanoid, had its gaze fixed on him, as it charged as fast as it could manage. He barely found the opening bar and pulled as hard as his frail, shaking body allowed, opening the door enough so he could squeeze out of the gap. The hybrid came close to him as only his legs remained in the hallway, it reached out and bit down hard on the foot it had found, causing Smokey to let out a blood curdling scream. The chimera responded by biting harder. Smokey jerked his legs forward, smashing the hybrid's head against the door, causing it to let go of his foot with a whine and allowing him to get out of the door frame. Smokey slammed the thick iron door shut, revelling in the appearance of the red light for locked. The chimeras all started to ram against the door, but caused no damage to it and gave up after a while, a muffled growl signalling the end of the assault on the door.

Smokey laughed hysterically, before pulling out a phone from his pocket and dialling a number. "Send…help…Saffron…research…facility…quickly…"he slurred into the phone deliriously before dropping it. A few minutes later he saw flashing lights, and he mustered the courage to look down at his mangled foot. It was bleeding profusely, the bones had definitely broken and it was losing feeling, but he didn't care.

He was alive.

He had survived.

He had no idea what had just happened.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2-The Mission

The cafeteria was alive with the chatters of many different conversations occurring at the same time. Some were jovial; others were heated debates with boasts of varying believability being thrown around.

The lunchtime rush was on. And she hated it. Her wire hairnet was itchy. The ugly green apron she had been forced to wear was unbearably hot, and did nothing for her figure.

A hand was suddenly and rudely thrust into her line of sight. "Hey, anybody home, I want my lunch now," a grunt questioned, snapping his fingers in her face repeatedly.

Shaking her head to clear her reverie, Cassidy plastered on a fake smile and dumped something that _looked_ like stew onto the grunt's tray. The grunt, in return, sneered at her and sauntered off to a table where his partner sat. He pointed at her while saying something to the grunt sat next to him. After receiving a confirming nod, he laughed and turned towards his lunch; attempting to find something which resembled food in the pile of mush.

Cassidy just sighed. "_Who do they think they are?_"she angrily thought to herself,"_that used to be me mocking the cafeteria staff. Hell, it should still be me!"_ Eyeing the clock, Cassidy noticed there was forty-five minutes until her shift at the cafeteria ended. Growling to herself, she just sighed and turned her attention back to serving lunch to the customers.

A gruelling forty-five minutes later, Cassidy's shift had finally ended. Sighing in relief, she took off the heavy green uniform and threw it into the cleaning box, changed back into her regular outfit of mini-dress and white boots and started to head for the exit to the living quarters. As she approached their table, the two grunts, who had been looking at her earlier, started laughing again. When she was next to the table, Cassidy gave the table a kick, causing a drink, which had been resting near the edge of the table, to fall and spill on the grunt who had laughed first.

"Hey!" the grunt yelled, standing up and slamming his hands on the table. "Now look what you've done, you bitch!"

"Oops, clumsy old me," Cassidy said mockingly, before swaggering off, flipping her long blonde hair back and smiling to herself as the grunt furiously swiped at the wet parts of his outfit.

Cassidy walked out of the cafeteria, out of the main building and over to the separate building which held the living quarters. Although she would much rather be out in the field and in the luxury suite of some expensive hotel, she had started to enjoy (or at least tolerate) the living quarters as a place to retreat after a long day of grunt work.

Going up one flight of stairs, Cassidy entered a hallway marked: "Rooms 150-169", walked down until she found Room 157. Pausing by the door, Cassidy pulled out her keys from…somewhere, unlocked and opened the door.

The room itself was small and sparse; it was square and painted a dull, pale grey. Behind the front door there was another room, which held a toilet and small shower cubicle. Opposite the door, there was a medium-sized window, currently covered by a pair of off-white curtains. Under the window was a chest of drawers with a television resting on. Left and right of the door there was two single beds parallel to each other. On the left bed a small, black and orange canine pokémon was sprawled out across the neatly made bedspread. The bed on the right, by comparison, was a mess; the covers had been thrown off carelessly, with no attempt to fix it and a half-eaten sandwich was resting on the pillow.

Upon entering the room, Cassidy went into the bathroom and closed the door quietly. Gripping the sink and sighing, she gazed at the reflection in the mirror that was suspended above the sink. She barely recognised the person that gazed back at her. Those violet eyes that used to be sharp and full of ambition were dull and burnt out. Dark bags had formed under those listless eyes. Her hair had been scraped back into a loose ponytail. Letting some water run into her hands, Cassidy splashed it over her face.

"Dammit, this grunt work must be getting to me," Cassidy muttered to herself. She shook her head and left the bathroom.

Upon hearing the bathroom door open, the canine's ears stood up and his eyes snapped open. He stood up, shook himself, hopped off the bed and ran towards the door, yipping excitedly. Cassidy mustered up a smile. "Hey Houndour, how're you doing?" she asked, scratching him behind the ears.

"Hou, hou-hou, dour," the pokémon replied. Cassidy, having no understanding of Poké-speak, assumed this was a positive answer and smiled at the pokémon. The blonde then flopped down on her bed, rolled onto her back and stared at the off- white ceiling.

"I still can't believe those bastards in the cafeteria today," she said aloud. Houndour just leapt up on the bed and nuzzled his master's side in reassurance.

After a long series of unfortunate losses at the hands of a series of bratty, annoying, _lucky _kids, both Cassidy and Butch, had been demoted to Grunt duty; performing menial, boring work usually reserved for new recruits. These tasks included: acting as messengers, cleaning the headquarters, performing stock checks, and being cafeteria staff, as well as many other humiliating tasks. Giovanni, who had given this demotion, insisted it would: "Teach her a lesson she would never forget." Returning Houndour to his pokéball and closing her purple eyes, Cassidy realised that he was right, especially after the lunch incident, and mourned the loss of her carefully cultivated tough-girl image.

* * *

An annoyingly loud voice came from somewhere shouting: "…And the winner of this Pokémon Number One Grand Prix is…_HITMONLEE! _By_ knock-out!_ I simply _cannot_ believe it, ladies and gentlemen; this _newcomer_ has _defeated_ the four-time champion Primeape in an _amazing_ final battle!" This sudden noise caused Cassidy to wake with a yell and fall off of her bed in surprise.

"Shit, I must have fallen asleep," Cassidy muttered, holding her head loosely.

As she blinked her eyes, which were still hazy from her rude awakening, Cassidy glared around the room trying to figure out the cause of the disturbance. The TV was on; images of a Hitmonlee posing in a fighting arena were displayed on the screen. She then looked to the bed opposite her own, and allowed the glare to soften slightly when she realised there was no immediate danger.

Sat on the other bed was Butch, her friend and partner in crime and Team Rocket. He was lying on his bed in a black t-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts, eating the rest of the sandwich Cassidy had seen earlier and watching the TV. He was grinning and punching the air, until he caught his partner's fierce glare. He froze and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment; grinning awkwardly.

"Geez, um…sorry Cass. Didn't mean to wake ya, but I had ta see the results of the P1 fight," Butch explained. "Y'see, I kinda bet somebody that the Hitmonlee was gonna win and…err…yeah. I didn't think it'd be so loud."

Cassidy just glared at the green-haired man, before getting back into her bed, groaning loudly and burying her head into the pillow.

Butch responded by blinking in bewilderment.

"Uh…are you okay?" he asked cautiously.

Cassidy huffed in response, causing Butch to stare at her blankly.

"C'mon Cass, tell me what happened," he continued, leaning forward on his bed.

Shuffling Cassidy let her head rise up from the pillow. "Well if you must know it was during the lunch shif-" Cassidy started, before being cut off by a buzzing sensation in one of the secret pockets on her dress. Rolling her eyes, the blonde took her pokégear out and answered it with a curt "Hello."

"_Giovanni has requested your presence in his office in ten minutes do not be late_," the Boss's secretary, Matori, ordered. "_He wants your partner to be there with you_." The conversation was cut off after that demand.

Cassidy just looked at her pokégear, before shrugging and getting up from her bed. "Who was that?" Butch asked, sitting up on his bed.

"Matori, she said the Boss wants to see us," Cassidy answered, going to the bathroom so she could sort out her appearance and put her make-up on.

"Huh, wonder what for. Hey, ya don't think the Boss wants to give us back our Field Agent status?" Butch asked as he got off the bed and changed into his uniform.

"I dunno. Let's hope so," Cassidy responded, leaving the bathroom. She felt better and more alert and ready for the Boss.

"Yeah," Butch commented, "well let's go now." He walked towards the door, following Cassidy closely.

"Now remember Butch, when we're in the Boss's office, whatever you do, don't mention Unova in front of him. If the Boss _is_ gonna offer us our old jobs, then we can't piss him off. Got it?" Cassidy reminded Butch. He nodded in confirmation.

It had been a week since Operation Tempest had failed, although everyone knew it had happened, no-one dared to mention it. _Especially_ when Giovanni was around; word was some guy had laughed or made a joke about the Operation when Giovanni was walking past, and he was never seen again.

As Cassidy and Butch left their room, Cassidy tried to fight off a smile at the thought of getting out of Grunt duty, but failed. "_Surely the Boss realises the punishment was too harsh. I'm _sure _that he'll give us our job back,_" she thought to herself. The duo walked down the stairs, out of the living quarters and back to the main building.

Cassidy had started their journey to the office feeling confident, but now, as she got nearer to the office, she had felt the slightest stir of fear inside. The sensation was not helped by the hallway itself.

The hallway leading to the Boss's office was overly bright and felt cramped and the air was far colder than any other part of the building. The white metallic surfaces did nothing to reduce the harsh glare of the xenon lights overhead. The metal floor did not reduce the building unease she felt; each step they took made a '_click_' noise which echoed unnervingly. There was an odd smell too; it was slightly metallic, slightly acidic, with a chemical undertone. The 'walk', as many had dubbed it, felt longer than normal to Cassidy than it ever had before; it was not helped by Butch trailing behind, casting a thick, heavy shadow over her, suffocating her and making no attempts at conversation.

He kept muttering the same unintelligible syllables over and over and over again. Listening to this caused her to breathe heavier, her heart beat a little faster, and the hairs on her arms rose, in alarm or fear she could not tell. "_Something is not right here…_" she thought, these panicky feelings reaching a climax, resulting in her clenching the fabric of her uniform tightly, her knuckles bone-white underneath her gloves.

But, as quickly as these feelings came, they went again. Cassidy stopped suddenly, took a deep breath to relax and loosen her hold on her uniform and continued on at a faster pace than before.

Butch, who had been focusing more on his mantra than anything else, noticed that Cassidy had sped up. "Hey, wait up will ya!" he called out, raising one hand in protest and breaking into a light sprint to catch up with her. This feeble attempt at running caused a half-smile to form on Cassidy's face as they reached the end of the hallway and the entrance to the office.

The ominous doors to the Boss's office stood out against the utilitarian design of the corridor rather dramatically. The ornate doors were a dark shade of red with intricate patterns carved and filled in with black paint; a golden doorknob, which resembled a Persian's paw and claws, was in the middle of each door. Before they had been demoted by the Boss, Butch would always try to figure out where the pattern repeated itself and wonder why some people felt intimidated by the doors.

But now, on the other side of the Boss's graces, he could understand why these doors were daunting. The patterns looked like they had come straight out of the Distortion World, and, he swore the patterns were shifting and twisting as he stared at them, waiting for the Boss to call him and Cassidy in, waiting for the invitation to find out his fate.

Time seemed to slow down to a miserable crawl as they waited. It regained speed when a low, powerful voice rolled out a "Come in," in an authoritative, yet oddly inviting tone. With no hesitation, Butch's left hand went forward and grasped the left doorknob at the same time Cassidy's right hand grabbed the right doorknob. Glancing at each other and nodding once, they pushed the doors open and entered the room.

The office itself was light and spacious. As soon as they entered Cassidy found herself looking at a familiar mountain backdrop through the window which formed the entire back wall. Placed in front of the window was a desk with a high-backed chair, its back was currently facing them. Dotted around the room were various objects and trinkets in display cabinets.

The chair suddenly spun around to reveal Giovanni himself, arms crossed, a frown marring his face. He was dressed in his orange suit with red tie, yellow shirt and green waistcoat.

Cassidy wondered what had happened to the military style outfit he went to Unova in, but, remembering the story of the disappeared grunt and Operation Tempest, she did not vocalise her thoughts. Instead she on one knee, a gesture that was copied by Butch, and both of them offered a confident "Sir!" to Giovanni

Giovanni nodded in response and they stood up, backs straight and still as statues.

Giovanni's dark eyes flickered over them briefly. "I have called you two here today in order to offer you a new mission," he began, his low voice echoing around the room. The words stirred some amount of hope in Cassidy, a small smile threatened to appear on her face. "Yes…I expect that you feel dissatisfied with you current _assignment_, is that right?" he asked, a smirk was on his lips at the word "assignment".

Cassidy swallowed. "I do feel that my talents could be used better elsewhere, sir, but I will do whatever you ask of me," she answered, feeling a prickle of disgust at herself for saying that. _"And you joined Team Rocket to be free, to be who you wanted to be. How pathetic,"_ a voice in her head that sounded like her at a younger age said scathingly. Butch, who seemed to be following Cassidy's earlier advice nodded in agreement.

Giovanni leaned forward in his chair and smiled at the answer, the smile showed off his teeth. "Good, this mission is of the upmost importance for Team Rocket and its future. I could think of _no-one_ better for it then you two," he purred, the predatory smile still on his mouth. "As you probably know we lost contact with the Saffron Research Facility recently," he paused, his eyes darting between Butch and Cassidy, as if to gauge their reactions, "I trust you've heard that news around?"

"I've heard stories about it, sir," Butch responded hesitantly.

"As have I sir," Cassidy also confirmed.

"Yes, well, to be honest we have no idea why all contact stopped," Giovanni revealed, "it's my understanding that there was some sort of attack at the base, but we don't know _what_ or _who_ attacked. Also, we lost some important research data. So, your mission, if you should accept it, is to recover that data and any possible survivors and bring them back," he concluded, reclining back into his chair.

The hope that had been building in Cassidy's chest spluttered out when she realised it was a recovery mission. Butch, on the other hand, seemed excited by the prospect of a mission and said, without realising: "We accept the mission!"

Giovanni raised his eyebrows at the sudden show of enthusiasm, but appeared pleased, or was it relieved, Cassidy wondered. "Very well then," Giovanni said, clapping his hands together, "I'll organise a car to take you to the facility right away." He then reached for a phone that was under his desk.

"Wait a minute!" Cassidy yelled, causing Butch to flinch and Giovanni to stop reaching for the phone and look at Cassidy. "Sir, with all due respect, I can't help but feel like you're leaving out details about this case, so please…uh…could you tell us more about the case…"she trailed off, becoming scared at the look on Giovanni's face.

He had turned a rather curious shade of reddish-purple, his eyes narrowed to furious slits and his fists clenched. "Are you questioning me? Are you questioning my reasoning?" he growled.

"N-n-no sir," Cassidy stammered, her face paling, "it-it's just that we agreed to this mission so quickly, th-that I feel like we didn't hear all the details, and it may help us to do the mission better an-" Giovanni slammed his fist into his desk, uncurled his hand slowly, took a deep breath in and released it, now looking calmer than before.

"Alright," Giovanni sighed, "about two weeks ago we lost contact with the facility. There was an alert for decontamination, so we're assuming that whatever attacked came from the facility itself, and died in the process. Oh, and there was two known survivors, but that's all that is known." Giovanni stopped and glanced at the Agents. "Any more questions?" he snarled, implying that they had better not ask.

Cassidy, however, ignored the unspoken warning and asked: "What's the reward for this mission?"

A long extended pause occurred, with Butch now sweating and fearing for his life, and Cassidy glaring at a wall, feigning an air of arrogance and aloofness. Giovanni started smirking after some time. He licked his lips and bared his teeth in that predatory smile. "If you complete this mission, I'll reinstate your Agent status and promote you to Elite rank too," he replied, smirking at their reactions.

Butch's mouth dropped open and his eyes widened to near comical proportions. Cassidy, for the most part, kept her reaction on the inside, but the smile on her face betrayed her. "Yes…" she breathed, "I'll accept the mission."

Giovanni grinned; something about the gesture gave the impression that there was a lot more to this case than what he had explained, but Cassidy felt she had pushed the limits of Giovanni's patience today, and ignored the niggling feeling of doubt in the back of her mind. "A car will come to take you there in about an hour, I suggest you take that time to prepare," Giovanni commented, before gesturing for them to leave.

Cassidy and Butch bowed and left the room in a hurry.

As soon as they left the office, Butch whirled around to face Cassidy, a fierce look imprinted on his face. "D'you wanna explain what the _fuck_ you were thinkin' in there, talking back to the Boss like that. Are you fuckin' _insane_ or do ya have a death wish, or _somethin'_?" he shouted, pointing a finger in her face as he shouted.

Cassidy slapped his hand away and shoved him out of the way, moving towards the exit with forceful, angry strides. Her jaw was clenched shut, her eyes were blazing with fury and her arms were swinging violently as she went along. Butch glowered at her back before following her at a much slower pace.

* * *

Upon reaching their room, Cassidy slammed the door shut and slumped against it, feeling a strange mix of anger and numbness about the events that had just occurred. She pulled off her boots and gloves and threw them as hard as she could across the room.

Curling her hand into a fist, she punched the floor, ignoring the spark of pain that followed the gesture and repeated the action again and again. Each punch lessened some of her frustration at the situation.

One punch; Butch's over-eagerness to accept a mission he knew nothing about. Another punch, some skin on her knuckles split; that was for Butch's words to her after the meeting.

A third punch, this time for Giovanni, for creating this mess by demoting her. Another one; for offering the mission, with a deal she couldn't refuse. By this time her knuckles had started bleed slightly.

Her pace had picked up now; a fifth, sixth and a seventh in rapid succession. Those aimed for her; for giving in so quickly, for forgetting why she had come to Team Rocket in the first place, for being suckered into accepting the mission. Now her knuckles were bleeding and her hand was shaking uncontrollably, but she felt much better, and able to focus on the mission at hand.

The mission, something was not right about the mission, especially the way the Boss had described it. Half the details were missing, Cassidy realised, as the scene kept replaying in her mind, and the look of relief on his face when Butch had accepted the mission, and that anger when she had started prodding for more details. There was definitely something about this facility, something was telling her to get out of this mission at all costs. Cassidy looked down at her bleeding hand and thought that it would be the perfect get out clause.

But then she remembered what grunt duty had reduced her to, what she looked like underneath her carefully painted façade. She could not continue on like it, she had to get her rank back no matter what, only then could she achieve her original goal; freedom, fortune, fame or infamy. But that would come later, after the mission.

"First, let's deal with my hand," Cassidy said aloud, pushing herself up from the floor carefully so she didn't knock her bad hand, which was still stinging. Walking over to her bed, Cassidy grabbed Houndour's pokéball and left the room.

* * *

After getting her hand bandaged in the infirmary, Cassidy headed for the exit, but paused after passing a few rooms and hearing some voices saying something. Taking a few steps backwards, she stopped were the voices were coming from. She couldn't tell what they were saying specifically, but a few details stuck out. "Poor guy," "Lab attack," "Never seen an injury like it," and "Room seven," was enough for Cassidy to figure that it was probably the survivor of the lab incident. Her pace sped up as she advanced to room seven. On the door there was a notice, with "No Entry," written on it.

"This must be the survivor from the labs," Cassidy mused as she peered through the window on the door. Seeing that there were no nurses or doctors around, she opened the door.

A man, with limp grey hair and haunted, dull blue eyes was sat in a bed. He was pale, frail and listless. His head hung heavily in front of him. "Oh Mew, oh Mew, oh Arceus," he kept repeating continuously, nodding his head with each word. Cassidy noticed his left foot had been bandaged and it looked due for changing, as they were turning an unhealthy brown-red colour.

Approaching the bed, Cassidy cleared her throat, a hint of awkwardness creeping into the gesture. The man barely moved or acknowledged her presence. "Uh…hi, I was wondering if you could tell me what happened on the day of the incident in the Saffron labs," Cassidy started, "because it would really help me if you coul-"

"No! No, n-not the labs again, no, c-can't n-n-not again," the man interrupted, screaming and breaking down into a series of sobs. He lowered his heads into his trembling hands, but then his head shot up, he lunged at Cassidy, seized her wrists, dragged her forward and forced her to look into his eyes; eyes which had a frenzied and wild look to them. "Y-you can't be thinking of going there. You can't go, you can't, you'll die. _You'll die_! You will f-_fucking_ die in there, get eaten by tho-those things in there! You'll die, die. **_Die!_**" he kept screaming and flailing, even as the attendants entered the room, restrained him and drugged him with sedatives.

Cassidy, who had been very shaken by the turn the event had taken, backed away as the man slowly succumbed to the effects of the drugs. Letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, Cassidy stumbled towards the exit of the headquarters and towards the car that had been arranged to pick her up.

* * *

**A/N:**Hello, readers. If you are a returning reader, sorry it took so long to get this chapter out, exams stopped me from writing this quickly, but that's over now so I'll be able to write and update quicker.

In the next chapter we will begin our descent into the facility, and the start of the horror aspect of the story.


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